Capturing Beautiful Pictures

You have probably looked at beautiful photographs in magazines, books, in websites ... or elsewhere so many times and if you were like most people, you thought: "I wish I could take a picture like that!" Well that's not just photographer's instinct, I know. But looking at these pictures didn't really help you to take better pictures.

Why not? Because you didn't know what to look for. You saw a beautiful picture. You felt that it was beautiful picture. But, you couldn't tell why it was beautiful. You couldn't tell what the photographer had done to produce a beautiful image. Perhaps, the magazine, book.. told you the name of the camera, its type and the lens the photographer used, perhaps the aperture and the film that photographer used. Well these are the technical details - but they didn't help you produce better pictures. And it's like knowing the names of the paints and brushes used by Leonardo da Vinchi but it won't help you to produce a painting as beautiful as the Mona Lisa.

The missing ingredient in the process is KNOWING, what to look for. And, perhaps that's the most important thing in capturing beautiful pictures. There are three simple guidelines of what to look for. The skill of seeing the beautiful pictures in the world around you, is what I say "the photographer's eye."

Let's me tell you these three simple guidelines:

1. A good photograph has a clear subject. (We sometime call this a theme.) It's about someone or something. It may even tell a story about that subject. But the subject is clear and unambiguous. Whoever looks at the picture immediately sees the subject.
   
2. A good photograph focuses attention on the subject. In other words, the viewer's eye is immediately drawn to the subject.
   
3. A good photograph simplifies. It includes only those elements that draw the eye to the subject, and it excludes or diminishes those elements that might draw the eye away from the subject.

By starting right now to think in terms of these three simple guidelines, you will find yourself looking at published photographs in a new way. More important, you will find yourself seeing the world around you in a new way. Most important, you will find yourself taking pictures in a new way. You will start to see the world through viewfinder with the eye of a photographer!

Now here is one very beautiful picture for you to check above three simple guidelines. ;)